Remember Me
by LayKay
Summary: Picks up where season two ended. On his way to Tahoe to see Paige, Walter sees a red Chevy wrecked on the side of the road...
1. Chapter 1

Walter swore softly under his breath, another call from Paige going to voicemail. He pushed the button to end the call, not leaving a message as he continued to travel down the road. He squinted his eyes when he saw smoke ahead, preparing his phone to call 911 to report the accident he assumed he would be coming upon.

His phone nearly fell out of his hand when he saw the crash, quickly giving the dispatcher the location before he pulled over. "No," he said softly, walking to the red Chevrolet that was rolled onto it's hood. "No!"

He ran over to the driver side and saw Tim hanging limp. Walter reached through the open window and held two fingers against the other man's neck, feeling no pulse. He moved quickly to the other side of the car and saw Paige through the closed window, her head bleeding freely from a large gash on her forehead.

He quickly rolled down his shirt sleeve to cover his arm and hit the window hard with his elbow. It finally shattered on the fifth hit and he was able to reach through to feel for a pulse, releasing a breath he didn't realize he'd been holding when he felt a light movement under his fingers. "Paige. Paige, please wake up. Please, open your eyes."

He heard a ticking coming from the engine and instantly reached for his phone to call Happy but stopped before dialing the number, knowing she likely wouldn't answer him. He pulled his pocket knife from his back pocket and cut Paige's seatbelt, catching her before she fell and carefully pulling her through the window and moving her away from the crash then ran back to Tim to pull his body from the car.

"Paige," he said again, kneeling next to her and running his fingers through her hair. "Paige. Paige, please." He smiled when he heard a soft groan. "You're gonna be okay. Help's on the way." He kissed her forehead quickly, when he pulled away he saw her eyes open. "Hi. Hi. You're gonna be okay," he told her again, running a hand through her hair again. "Just stay with me, okay? I love you, Paige. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry I was so stupid. Just stay with me, okay?"

He turned back to the car when he heard a loud pop, throwing his body over Paige's, heat from the fire that had erupted and pieces of glass and metal hit his back. He shook his head as his ear rang, sighing in relief when he heard sirens.

* * *

Walter sat in the waiting room, leaning his head against the back of his chair, his arm in a sling. "Walter," Cabe said from behind him. He stood up when we saw Cabe, Sylvester, Ralph, and Toby walking toward him. "What the hell happened?" he asked.

Ralph sat down silently, looking down at his lap as the adults spoke around him.

Walter shrugged his shoulder. "Paige is in and out, and Tim…" he trailed off and looked at Cabe, shaking his head once.

"What happened to you?" Sly asked, looking at Walter's arm.

"Hairline fracture. I broke the window," he told him dismissively.

"Guys!" The men all turned as Happy ran into the waiting room. Toby walked towards her, she dodged him and went to Walter. "How is she?"

"Not good," Cabe told her.

Toby walked to Happy again, standing over her shoulder. "Can we talk?" he said.

She shook her head. "You're drunk."

"What's his name?"

She turned to look at him. "You're doing this now? Seriously?"

He shrugged. "When?"

"Toby," she said, shaking her head. "No. Not now."

"Don't I deserve answers?"

"Toby!"

"Hey!" Cabe snapped. "Cool it, you two. It can wait." He looked at Ralph, who had his knees pulled up to his chest. "Your mom's gonna be just fine, trust me." Ralph only nodded in response.

They looked back at Walter, who was walking down the hallway toward Paige's room. He stopped outside her door, smiling when he heard her voice.

" _Can you tell me your full name?"_ the doctor in her room asked.

" _Paige Katharine Dineen."_

" _Good. Date of birth?"_

" _April 13, 1986."_

" _Good. Good. Do you know what year it is?"_

" _2013."_


	2. Chapter 2

Walter was only half listening as Paige's doctor explained her injuries to the team, he managed to catch the words "traumatic amnesia" and "non-life threatening".

"Physically, she's expected to make a full recovery." The sentence caught Walter's attention, he lifted his head to look at the doctor.

"And mentally? Her memory?"

The doctor shook her head. "Memory loss is very tricky. Only time and patience…"

Walter stopped listening again.

"When can we see her?" Sly asked anxiously.

"We don't want to overwhelm her with too much too soon. Maybe just her son for now and then we'll take it day by day, one at a time."

Ralph slid out of his chair and followed the doctor to Paige's room, where she was laying in bed with her eyes closed. He walked to her bedside and put his hand on top of hers, she opened her eyes and turned her head to look at him.

"You got so big," she whispered.

Ralph nodded his head silently, looking at their hands. "You're going to be okay," he told her. "We know people who will help you be okay. They care about you."

She smiled. "They sound great." She reached over to run her other hand through his hair and touched the collar of the t-shirt he wore. "Super Fun Guy? What's that?"

"Sylvester… my friend. We read the comics together."

"Friend? Is he in your grade?"

Ralph shook his head. "He's… older than me."

* * *

Walter pulled at his tie as he walked into the garage, taking off his suit jacket and tossing it against his desk. The rest of the team followed him inside the work space silently.

Walter went to Paige's desk, pulling open her drawers then logging onto her computer. "Walt, what are you doing?" Cabe asked tiredly.

"Looking for case files, information to jog Paige's memories," he explained.

"The doctors said to not overwhelm her and to take things slow," Sylvester reminded him.

"Yeah, maybe we should introduce ourselves to her before we tell her she crawls around inside of nuclear reactors for a living," Toby told him.

"How about we all take a breath?" Cabe said. "We just buried a member of the team…"

"Tim was not a member of the team," Walter snapped. "Paige is and she's in the hospital. She can't remember any of us because of him! He was driving her car."

"Tim was my partner, that makes him a member of this team," Cabe said calmly. "It was an accident. We don't know what happened, police are still investigating."

"He should not have been driving her car. If Paige was driving, they wouldn't have crashed."

"You don't know that."

"Paige is too cautious."

"Even careful drivers have accidents."

Walter smacked both of his hands against Paige's desk. "This wouldn't have happened! This shouldn't have happened." He glanced up at his team then back at her computer screen. "If I had not told her to go," he said softly. "This would not have happened."

"It's not your fault either," Happy told him. "It's no one's fault."

"It has to be someone's fault and she was in that car… they were both in that car because of me."


	3. Chapter 3

Toby walked into the loft over the garage, seeing Walter sitting at the counter, fiddling with a hard drive. "Hey, bud," Toby said, making the other man look up then back down at his hard drive. "What are you doing?"

"Updating my backup drives," he said dismissively.

"What, this?" Toby plucked the drive out of his hands, Walter froze. "This is what you've been doing for a week? You could fix this in an hour!"

Walter's jaw tightened. "What's your point?"

"My point is that it's been a week and you haven't seen Paige. Remember her, the woman you claim to love?"

Walter pushed himself away from the counter and walked to the other side of the room, trying to make himself busy. The rest of the team had been taking turns visiting Paige and taking Ralph to school and picking him up.

They'd made an agreement to not tell Paige what they did at Scorpion until she was physically able to return to work, that there was no reason to until then. She would eventually heal completely but she had several broken bones, including a broken femur that required surgery to repair, which would keep her from work for months.

"Look, Walt, I known you have feelings of guilt but you sulking…"

"I'm not sulking."

"Sulking isn't helping anyone," Toby finished. "That accident could not have been predicted or prevented. You did not kill Tim and you did not put Paige in that hospital bed. Whatever happened to make them crash, they were in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"They wouldn't have been there if…"

"If you didn't give them the tickets, we know. What if they had left ten minutes later or earlier? What if whatever probably ran into the road they swerved to avoid, had just stayed where it was? Walt, you can think what ifs forever. It won't change anything and Paige needs you."

"She doesn't know me," Walter said, not looking at Toby.

"She does." Walter's head snapped up. "She knows you pulled her out of the car before it exploded, she knows you saved her life. We told her your name, she's been asking for you."

"What are the chances that she'll get her memory back?"

Toby shook his head. "All we can do is help her fill in the holes in her memory and hope that eventually she's able to fill some in herself."

Walter exhaled deeply. "So there's no chance?"

"I didn't say that but she has a long road ahead of her. We can't just hit her over the head with something and knock her back. She needs to get there herself but she will need our help. She's still in there, Walt. She's still Paige."

* * *

Walter tapped his knuckles quickly against the door of Paige's hospital room as she sat with her bed reclined upright, looking at pictures on her bed table. She looked up when she heard him and smiled.

"Walter," she said, holding up the picture of him that had his name written on it in black Sharpie. "Sylvester gave me pictures, to help me put faces to names."

Walter nodded, hovering awkwardly in the doorway until Paige motioned to the chair next to her bed.

"You can sit," she told him with a slight laugh. He nodded again and sat down next to her. "Thanks for pulling me out of the car," she said after a moment of silence.

"You're welcome," he whispered. "I guess I was just… in the right place at the right time."

"Yeah," she said, deciding not to push what exactly he was doing on that same stretch of road so far from LA. "Can I ask you kind of an awkward question?"

He nodded. "What's wrong?"

She paused, trying to think how to word it but decided to just be blunt. "Are we… dating? I mean, if you were my boyfriend, I thought you would have come before now."

"B-boy-boyfriend?"

"I guess seeing someone you love like this would be scary. And you said you love me, after you pulled me out of the car."

"I did." He released a breath. He could easily say that he was her boyfriend, she would believe him with no reason not to. He wondered if she would let him kiss her if she thought they were dating.

"No," he finally said. "I'm not your boyfriend. Our relationship is…"

"Complicated?" she guessed.

"To put it mildly."

"I wish I could tell you if I…"

He cleared his throat, cutting her off then shook his head. "The… the man who was in the car with you…"

"The one who died?"

He nodded. "You were dating him."

"Oh," she said simply. She nodded slowly, feeling bad for not being more upset. She was sad that someone had died, of course, but not as devastated as she felt she should be. She figured the tears for him would come later.

"Paige?" They both looked up as a nurse knocked on her door. Paige sighed when the nurse held up a needle.

"I hate this part," she muttered. "I know this is gonna sound really stupid and juvenile but will you hold my hand?"

Walter blinked then nodded and scooted forward in his chair, taking Paige's hand in both of his as the nurse administered the shot into her hip.

"That wasn't so bad," Paige said, looking at Walter.

He smiled, giving her hand a gentle squeeze. "No. No, it wasn't."


	4. Chapter 4

Walter quickly became Paige's most frequent visitor, spending most days in her hospital room, even waiting for her during her hour-long physical therapy. His visits, though, were made up mostly of flashcard quizzes, trying to help her match up dates and major events over the past years.

When she slept, he would pull out his laptop and work. Once she'd woken up to lines of code scribbled on her leg cast. "You know, most people sign casts. Maybe draw a picture."

"I can't draw," he replied.

"I did not know that."

He smiled thinly at her joke. "I don't think it's something that ever came up in conversation." He shut his laptop and picked up the flashcards. "Where were we?"

She sighed. "Can we not do the memory quiz today? I have a headache."

He looked at her worriedly. "Why? What's wrong?"

"I have a brain injury. I think headaches come with the territory."

He groaned in frustration. "That isn't funny. None of this is funny. I'm trying to help you!" he snapped.

"Don't yell at me! I'm trying, Walter. You don't think I want to remember? You don't think I want to know who my friends are? Who you are? It's not my fault."

He looked down. "No. No, it isn't your fault at all. It's mine."

"Excuse me? How… how?"

"Because… because I told you to go with him. I told you to spend the weekend in Tahoe with him."

"I need your permission to spend the weekend with my boyfriend?"

He winced when she called Tim her boyfriend. He was the one who told her they'd been dating but he hated thinking about the implications of Tim being her boyfriend, what might have happened if they'd made it to Tahoe.

He shook his head. "No," he finally said. "I… I gave you the tickets."

"Well, that was… nice of you. Maybe not so much in hindsight but…"

"Paige."

"What, I'm not allowed to make a joke?" She let out an annoyed breath. "How am I supposed to do this, Walter? Tell me. You're apparently a genius. Tell me the proper way to deal with the fact that I almost died."

He froze when she said she almost died. He'd never thought about that very real possibility that she might not have made it out of that car alive. It could have easily been her neck that broke instead of Tim's. If he had been five minutes later, she would have been burned alive when the car caught fire.

"Walter?" Paige's voice was softer now.

"I… I d-don't know. You've always been a mystery I can't solve, a code I can't crack. I tried…"

"Walter…"

"I… I'm try-trying. I don't know how to help you," he finally admitted. "All the work I've done… that we've done. We've saved lives, Paige."

Her eyebrows furrowed. "No one's ever told what exactly it is that we do."

"We solve problems," he said simply. "We help people but I can't help you."

She heard his voice break at his last sentence. "Maybe you can help just by being here. You know, no one likes to be alone."

"I did," he whispered. "I preferred it, actually. Until you came along and then I found it difficult to be without you. Just… just being around you, hearing your voice, would make everything better." He didn't look at her as he spoke. It was easy for him to admit his feelings to Paige before, when he thought she might reciprocate. Saying them to a woman who, as far as she knew, had only known him a couple weeks was mildly terrifying to him.

"I do remember what you said after the accident. I really hope someday I can say it back."

* * *

Walter jumped back as he walked into the garage, nearly stepping on Bueller as the ferret ran past him. "Sylvester," he called with a sigh. "Bueller got loose again."

"Bueller," Sly yelled, coming from behind a corner to chase him. "Bueller!"

Walter sighed. "Paige gets out of the hospital in a week, Bueller can't be getting loose while she's walking around here on crutches. You'll need to take him to your apartment."

"And leave him alone all day?" Sly asked, cradling the ferret like a child. "I thought we agreed Paige won't come back to work until her leg was better."

"We won't take any new cases, we'll do small side jobs to keep ourselves going but Paige needs to be here. She needs to be reintroduced to her daily life. She can't very well be alone in her apartment all day. Toby?" Walter called, looking to the doctor for confirmation.

Toby nodded his head from his desk. "It's best for her to be in places where she spent most of her time. And since we can't take her to a war-torn country in her condition, this would be best for her," he agreed.

Sly frowned, lifting up Bueller to look at him. "Okay," he finally said. "If it'll help Paige. Okay."

Happy stood up, walking towards Walter and Sylvester. "What else?"

Walter looked at Toby for suggestions. "Well, we should make the environment as calming as possible," Toby said, walking over to stand near Happy but not too close. "So if there's any hostility in the team, we should try to remedy it."

Happy rolled her eyes. "Can everything not be about us?"

"He's right," Walter said. "Paige is intuitive, we all know that. She'll be able to pick up on this. Fix it," he said simply before he went up the stairs to his loft.

"Fix it," Happy repeated. "Fix it, like it's that easy."

Toby released a breath. "Well, I know where we can start. What's his name?"

She sighed, walking into the kitchen, closely followed by Toby. "His name's Jeremy." Toby folded his arms and raised his eyebrows, waiting for more. She let out a breath. "Alright, I was sixteen and looking for a way out of foster care, we both were. So we lied, we said I was pregnant and that things were bad at home so a judge would marry us and we could get emancipated from the system." She watched Toby's demeanor soften a bit. "I didn't love him, he was like my brother. We only lived together until I turned eighteen, then I came here."

Toby was silent, taking in what she was telling. "Why didn't you get it annulled?"

She shrugged her shoulder. "There was never a reason to. And then when there was… I couldn't find him."

He nodded slowly. "Walter's right, Paige does need us, all of us. But she'll get better and when she does, I'm gonna find him and get him to sign those papers. It is that easy."

* * *

AN: Obviously we have no idea who Happy's married to or why she's married. One of my co-workers who watches has a theory she married young to get out of trouble, I evolved it into that. So, thanks Janet for being my springboard!


	5. Chapter 5

Walter watched Paige as she moved around the garage, he couldn't help thinking about when Megan had been there, walking slowly on her forearm crutches as she explored. Paige's movements with her crutches were clumsy after only a few days of practice at the hospital, unlike Megan who had years of experience using hers.

A couple times Walter was ready to launch himself out of his chair when she seemed to be losing her balance but she was able to reposition herself quickly enough that she wouldn't fall.

"When will everyone else be here?" she asked.

He blinked at her, he hadn't even given the rest of the team a thought. He was awake before the sun came up then paced around the garage until it was time to go to the hospital so he could bring her back. The doctors had told him she could leave as early as seven in the morning, he was waiting outside her room at 6:50.

"Oh, Toby is taking Ralph to school today. Everyone will be in later. I'm always the first one here, I live upstairs," he explained.

She looked at the staircase and let out a curious hum. "I'm guessing this is my desk?" she asked, spotting a picture of her and Ralph. He nodded as she sat down in her seat, her eyes widening when it almost rolled out underneath her.

Walter quickly ran over to her, helping her sit. "Perhaps it would have been a good idea to get you a stationary chair for now."

Paige shook her head, touching his hand as he drummed his fingers against the back of her chair. "It'll be fine. It's only gonna be a few more weeks before this thing is off."

He smiled as her fingers brushed over his. "Perhaps we can rig it to not move," he mumbled, more to himself than Paige.

"Walt, it's fine. I swear."

He blinked at her use of his nickname, it sounded unnatural coming from her. "You… you never call me Walt."

"Oh. I'm sorry. Everyone else does..."

"I… I know. You call me Walter though." He moved to lean against her desk so he was facing her.

"Which do you prefer?" she asked, looking up at him.

He didn't mind being called Walt by his friends but her saying his full name always sent happy chills down his spine. Maybe it was the way her lips moved as she said it, the different inflictions she always seemed to put on the last syllable depending on her mood. Whether her voice was shrill and angry or sweet and soft spoken, maybe even a bit flirty, he loved to hear it. He smiled, his mind replaying all the times she'd said his name. "Walter."

She nodded. "Walter it is. So now that I'm back to work, can you please tell me what it is that we do?"

He bit the inside of his lip. "We are government contractors with Homeland. We solve problems no one else can. We uh… we've gone on recon missions, stopped war breaking out. You personally, have saved countless lives."

She stared at him then laughed. "No, really."

"Really." He pulled a large folder full of paperwork from old cases he'd pulled together. "Look, bombs in the city, planes with malfunctioning guidance systems. You played a crucial role once in preventing World War Three."

She swallowed hard, staring at the papers Walter spread out in front of her, her head began to swim. "I was a waitress," she muttered. "I think I need to sit down."

"You are sitting down."

"Then lay down. I need to lay down."

He held his arms out to assist her as she stood but she didn't touch him, moving slowly past him as she headed for the old couch in the corner of the garage.

* * *

Paige heard Toby's voice, speaking to Walter as she was pulled out of her sleep.

"I thought we agreed to not overwhelm her."

"I did not overwhelm her. She asked and I told her…"

"And she suddenly became tired and had to rest. That's a stress marker, a big one. We talked about this…"

"You talked about it!" Walter snapped suddenly, he looked over his shoulder at Paige, who quickly closed her eyes, pretending to still be asleep before he turned back to Toby. "I was never included in the conversations when you guys decided what's best for her without my input."

"You wouldn't talk about it, Walter," Toby almost yelled but managed to keep his voice low. "You didn't want to admit there's a problem, you still don't. Look at her, Walter. Look at her. She needs help."

"I am helping," Walter protested.

"You're trying. I know you're trying, so does she. And I understand the frustration, I do. But forcing all this on her on her first day back? Baby steps, Walt. Baby steps."


	6. Chapter 6

Sylvester walked slowly over to Walter's desk, holding his phone in both of his hands. "What time are you going to pick Paige up?"

Walter didn't look away from his screen. "She's not feeling well, she's taking a couple days off. What's up?" He turned away from his computer to look up at his friend.

"I have something. It might not help Scorpion but it'll help you, I think."

Walter raised his eyebrows, waiting to hear what he had to say. Sly turned his phone on and pulled up a video he'd saved, putting it on Walter's desk.

"What's this?" he asked, looking at the still of the roof of the garage.

"It's… after Megan died I started to film things, little moments that while seemingly inconsequential, could mean something someday. I wish I had moments with Megan I could replay when I miss her."

"You have an eidetic memory."

"But having something physical, something I can hold in my hands. It's different."

Walter nodded his head. "So what is this?"

Sylvester pressed the button on his phone to play the video of one of their rooftop parties. Paige and Walter came into the frame, far enough away that the microphone couldn't capture what they were saying as Walter smiled, turning his head to whisper something into Paige's ear that made her laugh.

They both turned to look over the edge of the roof, close enough that their arms brushed. Paige laughed again, putting her hand on his shoulder then letting it slide down his back before her arm fell back to her side. She leaned her head against his shoulder, just for a fraction of a second, like it was a natural action until she realized what she'd done.

Walter stared at the phone in his hands as the camera turned to Toby and Happy then looked up at Sylvester. "Will you send that to me?" he asked, standing up quickly.

Sly nodded. "Where are you going?" he asked as Walter grabbed his laptop.

"To see Paige."

"Hey, remember what we talked about?" Toby asked. "Baby steps."

Walter nodded, already sounding out of breath. "She needs to see this." He smiled at Sylvester, patting him on the shoulder. "You're a genius."

"I know," Sly said, looking confused as Walter ran out of the garage and to his car.

He sped to Paige's apartment, skidding to a stop outside of her building. He jumped out of the car, not bothering to take keys out of the ignition before he ran inside and to her apartment, holding his computer under one arm.

"Paige," he yelled, pounding on her door. "Paige!"

He frowned when he heard the sounds of something falling over and Paige swearing before she finally answered the door. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"You're out of breath."

She stared at him. "You sounded like the building was on fire and I'm not exactly Speed Racer with these crutches."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

She sighed. "It's fine. What's wrong?" she asked again.

"What fell?" he wondered, looking into the apartment.

"A lamp. Walter, what's wrong? Why did you come here?"

"Oh! I need to show you something."

She already felt exhausted but nodded and allowed him into the apartment. He helped her to the couch then opened his computer on the table in front of her, starting the video Sly had emailed him.

"What's this?"

"Wait."

She watched as she appeared with Walter, looking happy and at ease. Tears formed in her eyes as she watched, shaking her head. She saw herself with him and their friends, all smiling and laughing, but the images meant nothing to her.

"One more?" Walter asked, stopping the video.

Paige nodded silently, he pulled another video up and she tilted her head in confusion. This video was grainy and choppy. She blinked when she saw Walter unconscious in a hospital bed. "When were you…"

"Shh," he said, pointing to the screen as she kissed him in the video. " _… I really care about you, Walter."_

Paige put her hand on the top of the computer, closing it as the video looped.

"I'm sorry," he said, hanging his head and running a hand through his hair. "I… I had hoped seeing those videos would…"

"I know." She nodded slowly. "I don't know how I'm supposed to feel. My boyfriend's dead and I haven't even cried for him. And you…"

He lifted his head to look at her.

"I'm so confused."

"I'm sorry," he said again. "I shouldn't have…"

She didn't respond, her eyes avoiding his. "I'm tired," she told him.

He nodded. "Okay… do you need help?"

She shook her head. "I'll be fine."

He collected his computer and stood. "I'll talk to you later?" he asked as he walked to her door.

She nodded once as the door closed behind him. "Bye, Walter."


	7. Chapter 7

AN: I know I've been neglecting Ralph and what he's going through with all this but I'm _so bad_ at writing Ralph, I've just been having him be hiding or something. I know that's not fair to Ralph because other than Paige, he is the person most affected by all of this. So this is my attempt at writing Ralph. I'm rambling. Onto the thing.

* * *

Ralph opened his mother's bedroom door, peaking in to see her laying asleep in bed. He quietly walked into the room and closed the door, going to climb into the bed next to Paige.

"Ralph?" she said, startling awake when she felt the movement. "What's wrong? What time is it?"

"Early," he told her simply.

"What's wrong?" she asked again. He never liked to be in her bed. Even as a baby, he wasn't a cuddler and would cry almost any time he was outside of the confines of his crib. When other children came running to their parents' bedrooms during a late night thunderstorm, Ralph would open his window to study the lightening strikes.

"I thought Scorpion would be able to help you," he told her.

She ran her hand through his hair. "Maybe there are some things even Scorpion can't do."

He frowned and looked away from her.

"They can't perform miracles, honey."

"There's no such thing as miracles. Circumstances always cause or prevent an action."

"So maybe circumstances are preventing it."

Ralph frowned. "I just want you to get better, Mommy."

"Come here." She put her arm around him, pulling him close. "Even if I don't get better, nothing will change how much I love you, okay?"

"Try," he said simply.

"I am, sweetie. I'm trying."

"So was Walter."

"I know. And I know his heart was in the right place, I do." She released a breath. "Do you like me working for Scorpion?"

"You help people. You like helping people."

"Sweetheart, it's dangerous."

"I know but they take care of you. You all take care of each other. They want to take care of you now too. Once you're in Scorpion, you're in forever."

"Sounds like the mafia," she muttered.

Ralph frowned. "They're my friends too."

Paige kissed the side of his head. "Just try to go to sleep, baby, okay?"

* * *

Toby looked up as the door of the garage opened, his eyes widening when Paige walked in. He quickly stood and ran to her, helping her to sit. "What are you doing here? Walter said.."

"Ralph," she told him as he sat next to her on the couch. "You guys are important to him."

"He's important to us. You both are."

She nodded. "Where is everyone?" she asked, looking around the empty garage.

"Happy is helping out at mechanic a few blocks away, Sly and Walter are out fixing routers for a couple businesses. I don't have any jobs today."

"What happened to jumping out of airplanes and hanging off the side of buildings?"

"That isn't all we do. We actually spend most of our time here, Ralph too. When he's not at school, he's here with you."

Paige's eyes widened. "He doesn't… go with us, right?"

"No, no," Toby said. "Once. But we didn't take him there, he left school and came on his own. It was actually pretty amazing, he climbed into an incinerator chute and used an action figure to…" he trailed off when he saw Paige's horrified expression. "No wait, never mind, that wasn't Ralph. That was me. I did that."

She sighed. "I'm beginning to think this was a mistake. Maybe we're better off…"

"No. No, you're not. Trust me. Did you feel fulfilled as a waitress?"

She shrugged. "It paid the bills."

"Yeah, barely. Look, all I'm asking is that you give Scorpion a chance. I went to Harvard Medical School, so speaking as a medial professional, it really is best for your overall recovery. I promise, no dangerous cases until you feel better. Just boring desk work."

She laughed. "Okay. I think I can handle that."


	8. Chapter 8

Toby didn't look away from his computer when his phone rang, picking it up without glancing at it. "Hello?" he asked, putting his phone between his ear and his shoulder. He suddenly stopped typing, nearly dropping the phone but quickly recovered. "What… what? What do you mean? What happened? What's wrong? How bad is he?"

The other three heads snapped up. "Walt?" Happy asked. Toby nodded his head, listening to what the person on the other line was telling him.

Paige spun around in her chair. "Where is he?"

"What happened?" Sly asked, Toby held up his index finger as he hung up.

"Nurse didn't really go into details but he's at the hospital. Come on." Happy and Sly both got up and walked quickly to the door. "We'll be back..." he started to tell Paige but she already had her crutches.

"I'm coming."

Toby nodded and held the door for her as they exited the garage together.

"Dammit, Walter. What did you do now?" she muttered to herself as she got into Toby's car with the rest of the team.

* * *

Toby, Sly and Happy ran into waiting room with Paige close behind. "Guys," she said when she spotted Walter sitting alone in a far corner of the room. The other three skidded to a stop and went over to their boss.

"Sprained wrist," he told him, holding up his left hand which had a black brace around it. "The, uh, job I took turned out to be a bit more dangerous than had anticipated."

"How much more dangerous?" Paige asked, sitting in the chair next to him.

"A small amount of explosives. Not enough to kill, but enough to knock me over, which it did very effectively," he said, holding up his arm again.

"You know you need to call Cabe when things get dicey, especially when no one else is with you."

Sly's eyes narrowed as Paige spoke, looking at Toby, who shrugged.

"Next time I will, I promise."

"I know it's hard for you, but you should really try to avoid getting blown up for, say a month?" Paige pressed her fingers softly against his brace to lower it. "Does it hurt?" she asked, moving her fingers over the thick fabric.

He stared at her hand. "No… no. I-I've had significantly worse injuries."

"That doesn't mean it can't still hurt."

He cleared his throat. "I'll uh… I'll survive."

* * *

Walter was the last one to walk into the garage, going over to his desk and tearing the Velcro on his brace, making Paige's head whip around. "What are you doing? You need to leave that on."

"My wrist feels fine."

Paige scooted over to Walter in her chair, using he left leg to propel herself. "Because it's wrapped up. Right now, my leg feels fine but I know if I tried to cut this cast off and walk around, I'd end up flat on my face."

"And on a surgical table," Sly told her. "You'd probably re-break your femur and have to have surgery again on it."

Paige spun around. "Thank you, Sylvester," she said before she finished her rotation to face Walter. "Please? I know we are all sick of hospitals and I, for one, do not want to have to go back there because you didn't listen. Please? For me?"

He sighed softly, tightening his brace again.

"See, was that so hard?" She smiled and kissed his cheek quickly before rolling herself back to her desk.

Walter turned his head to watch her over his shoulder. "I suppose it does feel better," he muttered.


	9. Chapter 9

AN: Posting two chapters at once! I've had this one written since I posted the first chapter and saw no reason to wait to put a bow on this.

* * *

 _Paige looked sideways at Tim, frowning when she saw him yawn. "You okay?" she asked, putting a hand against his arm._

 _He shook his head once, widening his eyes as if he were willing himself to stay awake. He tilted his head side to side, stretching out his neck. "I'm fine," he told her._

" _You've been driving for a while. How about you let me drive for a bit?"_

 _He shook his head again, this time in opposition of Paige's request. "What kind of gentleman would I be if I made you drive?"_

" _The tired kind?" she suggested. "It's been a long day, Tim. You should rest."_

" _It's been a longer one for you. You know Toby a lot better than I do." She nodded silently. "If it'll make you happy," he continued, "next restaurant we pass, we'll go in. We'll sit down, have a bite to eat, stretch out our legs…"_

" _And then we'll switch places. That would make me very happy."_

" _Alright," he said with a smile._

 _He reached over to put his arm around her shoulders, she froze at the contact then forced herself to relax. She liked him, she really did. He was obviously good looking, he'd fought for his country, he was sweet and made her laugh, he was good with Ralph. On paper, he was perfect and as she looked at him, she saw a man she could have easily fallen in love with if she had met him two years earlier._

 _But she didn't. She didn't love him. Her mind wandered to the man she did love, the one who insisted she go on this trip while he stayed with Toby. The one who was also sweet and would make her laugh, but just a quickly turn around and shut her out. She wished she could make herself love Tim, it would be so much easier. He would love her back, something she knew Walter couldn't do._

 _The DJ on the radio announcing the upcoming song made her jump, Tim let out a laugh. "What are you thinking?"_

" _Nothing," she said quickly. She sat back against her seat, Tim's arm behind her when a shape in the middle of the road startled her. "Tim!"_

 _He already saw the coyote, pulling his arm free quickly to jerk the wheel harshly to the right while the wild dog ran to the other side of the road. Paige screamed as the car rolled, the sound of crunching metal and breaking glass drowning her out. Her body jerked, smashing her head against the window._

 _Then silence. And pain._

 _She'd never had a broken bone, but she figured every bone in her body had broken. Everything hurt. Body parts she didn't know she had felt like they were on fire._

 _She managed to open her eyes, blood blurring her vision as she looked at the man next to her. He wasn't moving. She lifted her hand to touch him but couldn't reach him at the awkward angle._

 _She heard her phone ring, able to see the display where the phone had landed near the windsheild. "Walter," she whispered, reading the large white letters before everything went dark._

* * *

Paige walked into the garage, Happy, Sly, and Toby were already at their desks and working on projects. "Morning," she said cheerfully. "Where's Walter?"

"Upstairs," Sly told her, not looking up from his computer.

She nodded her head and walked over to the kitchen, passing the empty ferret cage. "Hey, guys, where's Ferret Bueller?"

"My apartment," Sly told her without thinking.

"Did she say Bueller?" Happy said, looking at Toby.

"You remember Bueller?" he asked, standing up to walk over to her.

"Of course I remember him. What's going on?"

"Walter," Sly called up the stairs. "Get down here. Now."

"Sit," he told her, pulling a chair out for her and helping her into it. "Look at me. Follow my finger with your eyes," Toby told Paige. She did as he moved his hand in front of her face, then shoved his hand away and shook her head.

"You guys are acting weirder than normal. What's going on?" she asked again.

"Walt!" Happy yelled. "Hurry!"

Walter finally came down the stairs. "I'm here, I'm here. What's wrong?"

"Paige wants to know where Ferret Bueller is," Toby told him.

Walter's face broke into a wide smile. "You remember Bueller?"

"Why does everyone keep saying that?" she demanded.

Toby held up a hand to stop Walter from going to Paige. "What's the last thing you remember?"

Paige sighed. "I woke up, got Ralph up. Breakfast." She shrugged her shoulders. "Normal morning. What's wrong with you?"

"Do you remember being in a car with Tim?"

Paige stared at him. "Yeah but it…" she trailed off, shaking her head. She looked down at her broken leg, not having given a thought to it when she'd woken up and automatically reached for her crutches. "No," she whispered, realization of what happened dawning on her.

"What happened? The accident, what happened?" Toby pressed, sitting next to her.

Paige shook her head. "He was driving and a coyote or wolf or fox or something ran into the road."

Toby turned to Walter, smiling a bit. "Told ya," he whispered before turning back to Paige.

"And he swerved and then…"

"It's okay," Toby told her. "It's okay. Just take a deep breath. You hit your head and you had amnesia but you're okay."

"No. I was… I didn't… I can't…" she stammered, trying to lace a sentence together but her mind was racing and her heart felt like it was going to beat out of her chest. She looked up at her team, who was gathered behind Toby. "How long?"

"Long enough," Toby told her. "Just relax. You're okay. Breathe. I promise you, you are okay."

"Tim?" she asked, looking up Toby who shook his head. "Oh my god." She covered her face with her hands. "Oh, god. No. No."

Toby looked at Walter and motioned for him to go to Paige as he stood again. Walter knelt down in front of her, carefully taking her hands away from her face. "What else do you remember?" he whispered.

She looked at Walter, her eyes blurry with tears. "You," she hiccuped.

"Me?"

"You… you were there." She sniffled, shaking her head. "But you weren't, you were here. You were with…" She looked at Toby then back at Walter. "Were you?" she whispered.

He nodded.

The tears slowed as confusion took over her emotions. "Why?"

He smiled. "I went after you. I pulled you out of the car." She threw her arms around him, making his grunt at the sudden but not unwelcome contact. "I didn't want you to spend the weekend with him."

She pulled back from him, wiping her eyes. "But you…"

"I know, I know. After you left, I realized that I didn't want you with Tim. I don't want you with anyone but me. I realized that… I love you."

Tears formed in her eyes again but this time she was smiling. "What?" she whispered, certain she'd heard the last three words wrong.

"I love…" he began to say again but was cut off when her lips landed on his, her arms tight around his shoulders. He moved his hand to her face and felt the warm dampness on her cheek from crying. "Paige," he whispered when their lips separated.

She shook her head, kissing him again. "I love you," she whispered against his lips. "I love you. I love you."

He pulled away, smiling. "I thought I'd never hear you say that."

"I love you," she said again, pulling him back for another kiss.

"Scorpion is back!" Toby whooped happily from behind them. Paige looked up and laughed, her arms still around Walter while the rest of the team walked into the kitchen. She playfully knocked her cast into his wrist brace.

"It's good to have you back," Happy told her. "I'd hug you, but I think Walt'll bite my hand if I try to touch you."

"It's good to be back." Paige smiled, her fingers moving through Walter's hair, he closed his eyes and leaned into her hand, placing a soft kiss on her palm, ignoring Happy's comment.

He reached up to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. "I thought I lost you," he whispered.

She shook her head. "Never."

"I think this calls for a celebration," Toby announced. "Champagne?" He watched Walter lean up to kiss Paige again, almost pulling her out of her chair. "And cold water for these two. Hey, horndogs, cool it. Neither of you are in the condition to do what you're thinking."

"Toby!" Paige yelled, her face turning red. She quickly reached up to cover it. "Oh my God." Walter simply smiled and pulled her hands away from her face again. She placed one hand against his shoulder, giving him one more quick kiss. She shook her head, wiping more tears away. "So what now?"

"I don't know," he told her, holding her hand as he stood up to help her stand as well, supporting her again his side. "But I do know, I'm never letting you go again." What he really wanted to do was keep kissing her, but he figured there would be plenty of time for that and too many unanswered questions Paige was bound to have once she calmed down. He smiled, putting his arm around her shoulders while both of hers wrapped around his waist.

She kissed his cheek then leaned her head against his shoulder. "Good. I don't want you to."

 _End_


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